Ahmet Ertegun
Record Executive
When Ahmet Ertegun co-founded Atlantic Records in 1947, records were still mainly shellac-based 78s and the music he loved—jazz and rhythm and blues—were outside the mainstream of popular music. But over the years Ertegun, the son of a Turkish diplomat, built Atlantic—now part of Warner Music Group—into one of the powerhouses of American popular music, signing acts as diverse and important as Ray Charles, Big Joe Turner, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Sonny and Cher, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
Ertegun fell at a Rolling Stones concert in New York on Oct. 29, suffered a head injury, and slipped into a coma. He died on Dec. 14 at age 83.